The High Court this Wednesday directed that the Shambhu Border be re-opened within a week “on an experimental basis,” noting that the number of farmers camped at the site had dwindled to a few hundred.
The Supreme Court has posed tough questions to the Haryana government following a High Court order this week to re-open the Shambhu border crossing, which has been locked down since February to prevent farmers protesting the central government’s agricultural policies from marching on Delhi.
“How can the state block a highway? It has a duty to regulate traffic. We are saying ‘keep the border open, but also control it,'” the top court observed orally on Friday afternoon.
The state had appealed a section of the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order, which directed a judicial inquiry into the death of 22-year-old farmer Shubhkaran Singh. Singh was one of thousands who marched to Shambhu after talks broke down and were met with barbed wire, shipping containers, and cement barricades. He was allegedly shot dead.